Turkey's Erdogan visits former foe Athens for migration talks

Athens (dpa) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan begins a two-day visit to Greece on Thursday for talks on migration and Ankara‘s relations with the European Union, as the two neighbours and former foes seek to improve ties and economic links.Managing the flow of refugees and migrants crossing from Turkey to Greek islands in the Aegean as their gateway to Europe is expected to be at the core of talks with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Turkey has clamped down on much of the people smuggling over the past 18 months.Cyprus, the island-state divided between a Turkish north and Greek south and which brought the neighbours to the brink of war in 1974, is also expected to be on the agenda. Recent peace talks collapsed.Erdogan is also expected to repeat his demand for the extradition of eight soldiers who defected to Greece by helicopter after a failed coup in July 2016. Greek courts have refused to hand the soldiers over, saying that they may not have a fair trial.In spite of these issues, the NATO allies have been working to strengthen relations in recent years. Erdogan visited Athens, then as prime minister, in 2010 and Tsipras went to Ankara in 2015.Ankara currently has very strained relations with both Germany and the United States.